Professional Documents
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P7,200.00
18,668.00
81,400.00
54,000.00
that the support was given without the knowledge of the person charged with the duty."
With reference to the first requisite, the record reveals that in acase for support instituted by Maria Dolores Cuartero
inn behalf of her children against the defendant, the Curt of First Instance of Manila handed down a decision on September
22, 1943, approvinng an agreement by the parties wherebythe defendant promised to paay the mother of the mmminors
P1,500 a month for their maintenance. It is also appearss that before that date on May 9, 1942 the parties had signed a
carta-convenio for the same purpose but for a lower rate of allowance per month. It is not denied that the defendant more
than complied with the terms of the above decision. Besides P1,500 a month, he sent the children extra cash and foodstuffs,
shoes and clothings.
And the plaintiff admittedly was aware of the foregoing arrangement. What he say is that P1,500 a month was utterly
insufficient. The remedy in that case was to ask the court to increase the allowance. It may be said in this connection that if
the value of the preavaling Japanese currency had deteriorate, the court, in our opinion, retained the jurisdication to increase
or diminish the allowance as the circumstances might justify. However, as matter of fact, P1,500 a month was deemed by the
court as late as August 8, 1944, to be adequate. In denying a motion of the children mother to raise the allowance, the court
stated that P1,500 was sufficient to pullthe children through those critical days in comparative comport.
The third requirement of the law is also lacking. The plaintiff made the alleged advances not only with the knowledge but
apparently against the wishes of the defendant. In Exhibit F, a memorandum dated January 1, 1943, and sent by the plaintiff
to the defendant, Del Rio informed Palanca that up to December 31, 1942, he had bande Maria Dolores Cuartero P750 as a
loan for the support and education of the defendant's children and requested that that amount be paid. It will be noted that in
the same Exhibit, the plaintiff complained that the defendant had not answered his previous letters, "recordandole los
prestamos que yo le hago a Doa Maria y Vd. se hace sorio."
In the face of this attitude of the defendant, the plaintiff was not justified in continuing supplying money to the mother of the
children, unless he wanted to give it out of charity or without the expectation of recovering it from the defendant. His
remedy is against Maria Dolores Cuartero.
This conclusion makes unnecessary a discussion of the second requirement. It suffices to estate that the plaintiff and one of
the children were engaged and were married afterward.
Paras, Feria, Pablo, Perfecto, Bengzon, Montemayor and Reyes, JJ., concur.
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